Mission San Antonio de Valero – The Alamo
The Mission San Antonio de Valero, more famously known as the Alamo, stands as a powerful symbol of courage, sacrifice, and the enduring spirit of Texas. Its history, however, extends far beyond the legendary 1836 battle. The site began as a humble Catholic mission in 1718, one of several established by the Spanish Crown to convert Native Americans and colonize the vast northern territory of New Spain.
The genesis of the Mission San Antonio de Valero can be traced back to Father Antonio de San Buenaventura y Olivares, a member of the College of Santa Cruz of Querétaro. Father Olivares first visited the region in 1709 and, recognizing its potential, sought approval to establish a mission. In 1716, he received the endorsement of the Marqués de Valero, the Viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), to relocate the struggling Mission San Francisco Solano, founded in 1700, to San Antonio.
The Viceroy further tasked Martín de Alarcón, the Governor of Coahuila and Texas, with providing a military escort for Olivares. After some delay, Olivares and Alarcón journeyed separately to San Antonio in the spring of 1718. The mission’s founding on May 1st was swiftly followed by the establishment of the San Antonio de Béxar Presidio and the civilian settlement of Villa de Béxar, marking the beginning of a new chapter in the region’s history.
The early years of the Mission San Antonio de Valero were marked by challenges. Initially located west of San Pedro Springs, the mission endured three relocations and numerous setbacks. A devastating hurricane in 1724 prompted its re-establishment on its present site, on the east bank of the San Antonio River. Temporary structures were gradually replaced with more permanent buildings, reflecting the mission’s growing stability.
By 1727, work had commenced on the stone convento, or priest’s residence. This two-story, arcaded structure, built to replace earlier adobe buildings, eventually comprised two wings along the west and south edges of an inner courtyard, situated directly north of the church. The convento, now known as the Long Barracks, served as living quarters for the friars and housed offices, a kitchen, a dining room, and guest rooms, becoming the heart of the mission’s daily life.
For decades, the Mission San Antonio de Valero faced ongoing struggles. Hostile Apache Indians posed a constant threat, and a devastating smallpox and measles epidemic in 1739 decimated the mission’s Native American population. Yet, by the 1740s, the mission’s Indian population began to recover, demonstrating its resilience.
In 1744, construction began on a grand stone church. However, a fundamental flaw in the building plan led to the collapse of the church, its tower, and the sacristy in the 1750s. Despite this setback, with the mission now serving over 300 Native Americans, a new, more ambitious church project was launched in 1758.
The new church was designed in a cruciform shape, incorporating a sacristy, a choir loft, a barrel-vaulted roof, twin bell towers, a dome, and an elaborately carved façade. Constructed from four-foot-thick limestone blocks, the church was envisioned as a three-story structure. However, as the number of mission Indians declined, construction stalled, and the upper-level bell towers and dome were never realized.
As the church remained unfinished, it is believed it was never used for religious services, and mission life centered on the convento. The three-acre mission complex also included essential facilities such as storerooms, a granary, workrooms, Indian residences, and an acequia, or irrigation ditch. At its peak in the mid-1700s, the complex boasted around 30 adobe homes and numerous brush huts.
The Mission San Antonio de Valero was largely self-sufficient, relying on its extensive livestock holdings, including 2,000 head of cattle and 1,300 sheep, for food and clothing. The mission’s farmland produced up to 2,000 bushels of corn and 100 bushels of beans and cotton annually, contributing significantly to its economic viability.
Beyond agriculture, the mission’s Native American inhabitants engaged in a variety of trades. They operated weaving, blacksmith, and carpentry shops, cultivated maize, beans, cotton, vegetables, and fruits in the surrounding fields and orchards, and managed vast livestock herds on the mission ranch, including cattle, sheep, goats, horses, and oxen.
While the primary objective of the Mission San Antonio de Valero was the conversion of Native Americans to Christianity and their integration as loyal subjects of the Spanish Crown, the missionaries were also compelled to assume a defensive role. Although the San Antonio de Béxar presidio was established across the San Antonio River to protect the mission, the Spanish government failed to adequately complete or garrison the fortress. Plans to build a protective wall around the Presidio were never fully implemented, leaving it as a single adobe building with soldiers living in brush huts. In 1745, a force of approximately 100 mission Indians successfully repelled a band of 300 Apache warriors who had surrounded the Presidio, underscoring the mission’s defensive capabilities.
Following the massacre at the Santa Cruz de San Sabá Mission in 1758, the missionaries and Native Americans at the Alamo constructed substantial walls around the mission, enclosing the central plaza west of the convento. These walls, eight feet high and two feet thick, featured a fortified gate and a turret with three cannons, providing a degree of security bolstered by a small artillery.
In 1773, the Franciscans of Querétaro transferred the administration of San Antonio de Valero and its neighboring missions to the Franciscans of the College of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Zacatecas. By 1777, the mission’s Indian population had dwindled to 44 residents. The following year, Teodoro de Croix, the new commandant general of the interior provinces, deemed the missions largely a liability and began to curtail their influence. In 1778, he decreed that all unbranded cattle belonged to the government, depriving the mission of significant wealth and its ability to support a larger population of converts.
By 1793, only 12 Native Americans remained at the mission, prompting the Spanish government to order the secularization of the Mission San Antonio de Valero and other area missions. Its religious functions were transferred to the nearby diocesan parish of San Fernando de Béxar. Simultaneously, its lands, houses, supplies, equipment, and livestock were distributed among the remaining Native Americans and local residents. By this time, the mission Indian population had declined to such an extent that only 12 habitable homes remained, and the fortress walls had already begun to crumble.
In the early 19th century, as Mexico fought for its independence from Spain, the old mission gained strategic importance. In 1803, the site became the quarters for the Second Flying Company of San Carlos de Parras, a company of Spanish Colonial mounted lancers sent to reinforce the existing San Antonio garrison.
These lancers remained in San Antonio for the next 32 years, integrating into the local population and participating in the community’s military, civil, and political affairs, including the Mexican War for Independence and the Texas Revolution. Officially named La Segunda Compañia Volante de San Carlos de Parras (Alamo de Parras), it was from this company of lancers that the mission acquired the name "Alamo."
From 1806 to 1812, the convento served as San Antonio’s first hospital, and parts of the mission were used as a prison. Mexican soldiers frequently occupied the mission during Mexico’s War of Independence with Spain (1810–1821). It was officially transferred to Mexico when the country gained its independence and remained under Mexican control until December 1835.
By this time, Texians were fighting for their independence from Mexico, and approximately 100 Texian soldiers were stationed at the Alamo. Led by Colonel James C. Neill, they requested an additional 200 men to fortify the Alamo. However, the Texian government was in disarray and unable to provide significant assistance. Neill and his men then began to fortify the Alamo as best they could.
Meanwhile, General Sam Houston, believing the Texians lacked the manpower to hold the fort, ordered Colonel James Bowie to take 35–50 men to Bexar to assist Neill in removing all the artillery and destroying the Alamo. However, there were insufficient oxen to move the artillery, and most men believed the complex was strategically important, so it was not destroyed. Neill then departed to seek additional reinforcements and supplies for the garrison, leaving William Travis and James Bowie in joint command of the Alamo.
Before any reinforcements could reach the Alamo, the Mexican army, under the command of General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, marched on San Antonio de Béxar on February 23, 1836.
For the next 13 days, the Mexican Army laid siege to the city and the Alamo, culminating in a fierce battle on March 6. As the Mexican army breached the walls and entered the Alamo compound’s interior, most Texians retreated to the convento and the chapel. Barricaded behind large wooden doors, the Mexicans used cannons to breach the barricades and ultimately defeated the Texians. The last to fall were eleven men manning two 12-pound cannons in the chapel. The Mexicans then stacked and burned the Texian bodies. Despite being severely outnumbered, the Texas soldiers had killed an estimated 400-600 Mexicans during the siege.
Following the battle, approximately 1,000 Mexican soldiers remained at the mission, repairing and fortifying the complex. However, after their defeat at the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, and the capture of Santa Anna, the Mexican army agreed to withdraw from Texas, effectively ending the Texas Revolution. As the Mexican army retreated, they demolished many of the Alamo’s walls and burned some buildings.
The Texians briefly used the Alamo as a fortress in December 1836 and again in January 1839. The Mexican army regained control in March 1841 and, in September 1842, used the site during their brief occupation of San Antonio de Béxar. In the intervening years, numerous stone carvings had been removed from the walls, and in 1840, the City of San Antonio permitted local citizens to take stone from the Alamo for $5 per wagonload. By the time Texas was annexed to the United States in 1845, the site was in ruins, overgrown with weeds and grass, and inhabited by bats.
A year later, in 1846, the United States Army occupied the site as the Mexican-American War loomed. By the end of the year, they had appropriated part of the Alamo complex for the Quartermaster’s Department, and the convent building was restored to serve as offices and storerooms. However, the church remained vacant due to a three-way title dispute involving the City of San Antonio and the Catholic Church. The church’s claim ultimately prevailed, and in 1849, the Army began renting the mission chapel and convento. The army also completed the roofless mission for use as a headquarters. The complex eventually housed not only the supply depot and headquarters but also storage facilities, a blacksmith shop, and stables.
During the Civil War, Federal troops abandoned the complex, which was soon taken over by the Confederate Army. The United States Army regained control of the Alamo when the war ended. Soldiers continued to occupy the site until 1876, when nearby Fort Sam Houston was established. During the Army’s occupation, they repaired the convento.
Private construction during the 1850s obliterated much of the remaining complex. The mission’s south gate, known as the "Low Barracks," served as a jail before being demolished in the late 1860s. The central mission plaza became a public park called Alamo Plaza, and new businesses were built over the grounds behind the convento. The convento itself was acquired by a local merchant in 1877 and used as a grocery store.
Efforts to preserve the San Antonio de Valero site began in the 1880s, and the site was purchased from the Catholic Church in 1883 by the State of Texas. It was then conveyed to the City of San Antonio for use as a museum. Occasional tours were conducted at the Alamo, but no efforts were made to restore the structure.
In 1905, the convento was purchased by Clara Driscoll for the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. Later, the Texas legislature approved the purchase of the convento and named the Daughters custodians of both it and the church. A controversy ensued within the group regarding the restoration of the properties, which some referred to as the 2nd Battle of the Alamo. The debate became so heated that it ended up in the court system, and the State of Texas stepped in to take control of the property.
When the controversy was finally resolved, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas acquired the entire city block behind the surviving mission structures and demolished later buildings to create a memorial park. Over the years, they worked towards creating a plaza with the chapel as its centerpiece. In 1935, they persuaded the city of San Antonio not to build a fire station near the Alamo. The building later became the Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library.
During the Great Depression, funding from the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the National Youth Administration was used to construct a wall around the Alamo, build a museum, and raze several old buildings left on the Alamo property. The remaining one-story walls of the convento remained roofless until they were refurbished as the Long Barracks Museum in the late 1960s. The Alamo was designated a National Historic Landmark in December 1960 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places when it was founded in 1966. The Alamo Plaza Historic District was also added to the National Register in 1977. Today, the Alamo is one of North America’s finest examples of Spanish missions.
Today, serving as a museum, the Alamo welcomes more than four million visitors each year, making it one of the most popular historic sites in the United States.
Contact Information:
The Alamo
300 Alamo Plaza
P.O. Box 2599
San Antonio, Texas 78299
210-225-1391